We are Three Stooges fans, actually. In fact, we are the very incarnation of their famous line, we tried to think, but nothing happened. Ten years ago, when we began working together, we did what many interfaith groups do. We shared with each other from the wisdom of our spiritual traditions.
Let's try again. That's how it was for the first three years. The passage I was reading was from the prophet Micah, calling us to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk with integrity. The passage I was reading is from the... Gospel According to John, where Jesus is instructing his followers on the meaning of unconditional love.
And the verse in the Koran says, repel evil with something which is better, so that your enemy becomes... your intimate friend. You see, beautiful words from each of our traditions.
But the problem is, we're all stuck in patterns of behavior. Here's our favorite teaching story. The mullah goes to work, lunchtime opens his lunch pail box, and what does he find?
A cheese sandwich. Second day, third day, fourth day, another cheese sandwich. He says, I'm going to go to work.
I hate these cheese sandwiches. Finally, his puzzled co-workers say, Mullah, why don't you go home and say to your wife, please, make me a different kind of sandwich. The Mullah says, I'm not married. Who makes them?
I do. When 9-11 revealed a far more serious kind of stuckness, I immediately called Jamal. I knew him, we had never worked together.
And I invited him to share with me at the Shabbat service. that week because it was crucial it was crucial to offer a more authentic face of Islam than the face that created the fear of all Muslims supported by the media. So Rabbi Ted and I became good friends. Then we became good friends with Pastor Don McKenzie. And soon I realized that Ted and Don are two of the best Muslims I know.
We had to shoot them. But of course they missed lousy shots. So I immediately explained that the word Muslim simply means one who surrenders one's attachment to the ego.
So as the Quran says, one can bring a heart turned in devotion to God. They understood completely and we averted a major global crisis. Thanks be to God. We marked the first anniversary of 9-11 with an event at my church, and after it was over and we were debriefing, the three of us looked at each other and said, we can't stop now.
And our work has evolved with a framework that contains the idea that true interfaith dialogue can lead to effective collaboration on the moral issues facing our world today. People have asked us, why is interfaith dialogue so difficult? And one of the reasons we suspect has to do with the confusion between the particular and the universal.
Every authentic spiritual path is an avenue to a shared universal. But that universal is far greater than the universal. than any particular path and when the particular path assumes that it owns the universal when a Jew says we are the only chosen people when the Christian says the only way to God is through Jesus when the Muslim says The Jews and Christians got it wrong and we finally got it right. We're in for serious global difficulties.
Spirituality is inclusive. Spirituality points to the absolute interconnectedness of all being. In interfaith dialogue we are able to share with each other The beautiful teachings in our traditions focused on oneness and unconditional love and compassion. But if we are to truly engage, we must share as well those areas that have been the taboos.
The areas in each of our own traditions which are inconsistent with those core teachings. Inconsistencies like exclusivity, violence, inequality of men and women, and homophobia. Especially exclusivity.
And I'm right about that. That's my story. And you're sticking to it. Okay. You know, we laugh to keep from crying often, but we also laugh because it gives us hope.
And it gives us hope because… Comedy always eclipses tragedy in the same way that the oneness, the unconditional love, and the compassion can eclipse the woundedness and the brokenness of our world. In God's eyes, nothing is ever irreparably broken. My participation in Interfaith Dialogue has given me the opportunity to acknowledge the Christian repudiation of Judaism, of Islam, In fact, the repudiation of anyone and anything not truly Christian, not truly Christian.
For many non-Christian people, the cross has become a symbol of an oppressive and arrogant triumphalism that has led to a tragic and destructive repudiation. For me, the cross shows us the extent to which one can and sometimes must go to make unconditional love real. I look forward to the day when the cross symbolizes the unconditional love that Jesus came to teach. In some very remarkable verses, the Quran says that if Allah wanted, Allah could have made all of us, all of humanity.
One single community. But out of a divine design, God chose to create diversity so that, as the Quran says, you might get to know the other. Can you get to know the other on a human level? Not to change the other, but simply to connect heart to heart. This is a very critical verse.
Sometimes the institution of religion makes this difficult. Here's another very well-known story. The Spirit of God comes down and reveals certain basic truths to some people, but then the devil comes along and says, let me organize that for you.
And that sometimes is called religion. You see, interfaith is not about conversion. It's about completion.
Becoming a more complete, fully human being. And from this place of inner spaciousness, we can then collaborate on projects which are dear to all of our hearts. Issues of social justice and earth care. That is why this beloved 13th century sage Rumi says, in fact he uttered, Oh God, you have created this I, you, we, they, to play the game of adoration with yourself. Let's play this game of adoration.
Our theme song contains words in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Bismillahirrahmanirrahim La ilaha illallah La ilaha illallah Adonai hu ha Elohim hu Adonai hu ha Elohim hu It's all one and I am as I am It's all one and I am as I am